Olivia Rodrigo, Noah Kahan and Morgan Wallen have all dealt with audience effluence in recent weeks \u2013 but that\u2019s only one part of a fearsome subculture that has built up around fandom, endurance and \u2018getting barrier\u2019<\/p>\n
The front row of a gig is a sacred space. When you love an artist, you want to be as close to them as possible, without a view obscured by someone else\u2019s hairdo. You want the possibility that the artist will pluck you from the crowd, form a deep and enduring connection and end up marrying you. Or at least notice you. <\/p>\n
Last month, Olivia Rodrigo revealed how acutely she had noticed some of the fans lining the barriers at her shows. \u201cPeople wear diapers so that they can be front row,\u201d she said, adding, to everyone\u2019s absolute horror: \u201cThat\u2019s been an experience as a performer that I have smelled.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is no aberration, and while genuine medical needs should be taken into account, situations down the front have clearly got out of control. Also last month, video of a very stoic stadium worker cleaning up human excrement at a Noah Kahan<\/a> gig went viral and prompted Kahan himself to post on X: \u201cIf you have to poop at a show please dear god just go to the bathroom lmao.\u201d This week, a fan of US country star Morgan Wallen complained that he, his brother and his niece were urinated on by another concertgoer, and police are investigating. Must we be subjected to headlines such as \u201cSomeone Also Shit Their Pants at a 5 Seconds of Summer Concert<\/a>\u201d? And in 2024, someone urinated on the floor of the standing section of a Sabrina Carpenter concert, causing a run on a fairly horrifying item called a \u201cpit diaper\u201d<\/a>, whose mere existence speaks to a wider problem.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/45efa217f723acdaa00923f2f9e4cf4b33abe8ea\/3409_1675_5280_4224\/master\/5280.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=b0d87a6c6978b2325c9df5481c536a8b\" "\\"Pass")
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